We had a lazier start this morning and an easy breakfast in the apartment. Nearby there were two lovely lakes so we set off at around 11am for a stroll around the lakes and then up to the Temppeliaukio Rock Church. Excavated directly into solid rock, the Temppeliaukio church , completed in 1969, is one of the main attractions in Helsinki. The church hall is covered with a dome, lined with copper and supported on the rock walls by reinforced concrete beams. The interior walls are of rugged rock and rubble wall. There was a pianist playing and it has wonderful acoustics.
We then wandered back past the parliament building and across the park to our apartment.
They’d offered us a late checkout ( 1pm) but unfortunately were unable to store our bags until the early evening as the desk is only manned when they are expecting people to checkin. No problem! We wheeled our bags back to the station and popped them in a couple of lockers so we could set off for some more sightseeing. First stop was the lovely Lutheran cathedral in Senate Square. This is probably the most photographed site in Helsinki! Inside it’s a peaceful oasis of white with a colourful altar and organ.
We then strolled back down past the harbour to see the other big church in town, the red brick Orthodox cathedral. However, we had a bit of excitement in store before we went inside! Jatta had read on a news report that princess mary of Denmark ( Our Mary!) was in Helsinki for the day, and we had joked about the possibility of seeing her. Well, across the road from the cathedral was a large office building and as we walked up we noticed some official looking people walking in and that they were rolling out a red carpet! We figured there couldn’t be too many people in Helsinki today that would rate a red carpet so Jatta did some Googling to see if we could find out Mary’s schedule for the day…we waited around for a while and sure enough, after about 20 minuted up rolled the black car with the Danish flag and out stepped Mary! Unfortunately she had her back to us so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it was her 🙂
Waiting for Princess Mary!
After that we finally popped in to see the gorgeous decoration in the cathedral.
We were starting to get hungry so we wandered back downtown for an easy lunch at Pancho Villa, a favourite of Simon and Jatta, and then they took us on a lovely long walk out to the peninsula and around the shoreline back to the harbour.
We noticed that one of the big ships was about to leave so we stopped at the market hall for a coffee to watch it negotiate the exit from the harbour.
After that we were all feeling pretty chilly and time was getting late so it was time to make tracks back to the station, passing the cathedral one more time, glowing in the afternoon light.
Station clock
It was sad to say goodbye, we’ve had such a lovely time with them both but we have a plane to catch! The transport out to the airport from central Helsinki is a dream, trains were running every 10 minutes at this stage and in 30 minutes we were at the airport. We’ve settled in to the Finnair lounge to relax before heading off for the final stage of our trip, a couple of night in Singapore. Farewell Europe!
